Orange Blossom Dreams
by butaneandthebeast
Summary: What happens when Kyoko discovers that she has some faint magical powers in certain areas, with the help of the much hated Reino? Will she be able to discover the truth about Ren and her heart? I am horrid at summaries, so it would be simpler to read
1. Chapter 1

This is a Kyoko X Ren fanfic, with a lot of Reino and otherworldliness thrown in, and a lot of the fairytale ideas were recycled and altered from Diana Wynne Jones' books, although I offer no guarantee that they will be the same. Any and all reviews and critiques (and praise ^^) will be highly appreciated.

The Usual Disclaimer: Nothing from Diana Wynne Jones nor Skip Beat! belongs to me, they belong to much more awesome people who have much better ideas than me. Now that we've got that sorted, let's read on, shall we?

The offer had come to Kyoko out of the blue. Even though she had just finished filming Dark Moon, and her portrayal of a high school bully in the drama Box-R was second to none, it still surprised her when she found out that people wanted her to act in their creations. And what a creation it was- her dream offer, to be precise- or so she had thought.

At first glance it had seemed perfect: the role of a simple fairy in the realm of magic. That was what Sawara-san had told it to her as anyway. And she, being too stupid and over the moon at her luck, had agreed without reading the script. It was only after she had started to prepare for her role, and had had to read the script in its entirety that she found out what she had bitten into. Once she read on, she found out that the fairy had a twisted complicated heart, and was loaded with conflicting emotions, many of which made her act out malevolently.

Kyoko was very confused of her _own_ feelings at this point. At one hand she wanted to do the role. She could already see herself, putting herself through various scenarios in the fairy's shoes, wondering how she would nuance the character, the way she had observed Tsuruga-san doing. But on the other hand, she felt that she was being type-cast. The only role to date where she had not been a malicious person was the Curara CF. What if this trend continued? What if people thought that she was only suitable for darker roles, and would work herself into a corner?

Kyoko shook her head. The decision was out of her hands anyway. She had already gone and tried to plead with Sawara-san to let her back out of the role, but the veteran manager had explained, in quite an infuriatingly reasonable and calm manner, that she couldn't back out. Regardless of the accolades she was receiving, she was still a rising star, and was not yet firmly established enough to refuse a role. The media was ruthless, and if it ever caught wind of the fact that Kyoko had refused a role with Tanamori-san, an esteemed director, it would be all too easy for them to paint her as an arrogant upstart with a swollen head from her new fame. No, Sawara-san had been quite firm. There would be no backing out. Kyoko just had to learn the hard way _never_ to accept a role without reading the complete script at least once.

However, the manager hadn't been completely unsympathetic. He had showed her a picturesque country house, and explained that LME's talents sometimes went there to clear their head and get ready for roles. He was sure that could manage to secure a room and send her there for a week, and she could work things out for herself. Maybe come up with a definite list of roles and characters Kyoko was looking forward to playing, he had suggested. Sawara-san had promised that he would looks over the list, and if anything suitable popped up, he would try and get her cast for it. One fluffy role against so many dark ones couldn't possibly do any harm to her, and would only increase her repertoire and experience.

This suggestion had cheered Kyoko up considerably. After all, one week off was better than nothing. Both Moko-san and Tsuruga-san were busy filming their own respective projects in foreign countries, and the landlady and landlord of Darumaya had hired a lot of seasonal help since Kyoko's schedule was ever-changing, so they wouldn't be needing her. And if she got that week to make a wish list for her dream roles and relax… what could possibly be so bad about that?

She snapped back to the present, which was her riding a van out to the countryside with a few other people who would be staying at The Resort, as it had been jokingly nicknamed many years ago. Soon enough, the van stopped, and everyone and everything tumbled out, in a hurry to stretch their legs. For Kyoko and The Resort, it was love at first sight. The Resort was nothing fancy, no architectural marvel, nor an aesthetic piece de resistance, which was highly unnatural, seeing as how the owner of the place was President Takarada. Instead, it was a big functional stone and wood building, with lots of wings and big windows and lots of lush green land surrounding it. But The Resort radiated waves of homecoming, of comfort. It felt like stumbling into a mother's arms after a long and hard day. As if in a trance, Kyoko picked up her bags and started walking up to the house. She stopped abruptly, her trance broken by the hairs on the back of her neck rising, and her little demons stirred. But she brushed it aside. Nothing and no one was going to spoil her magical week with The Resort.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story, I'm really grateful... especially since I don't know how long this will go on or where I'm going with this ^^~

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><p>Kyoko walked up to the front desk as she drank in the interior with her eyes. It had the same feel as the vibes that the house gave from the outside: refreshing, welcoming, rejuvenating and cozy, all at once. The prickling at the back of her neck, however, continued, much to her irritation. She kept a smile plastered on her face though, remembering the article that she had read that said that if one smiled enough, even falsely, they would somehow slip into a happier mood.<p>

Collecting her keys, she thanked the receptionist and went about finding her room. It turned out to be on the top floor, and one of the corner rooms. Kyoko could hardly believe her luck. She would be getting windows as two sides of her room, as well as a skylight, and the view… oh god the view… Sawara-san deserved… oh god, she needed to make something for him out of sheer gratitude for this room… she was about to go into raptures soon if she didn't share her excitement with someone. Excited, she opened her door to search for the camerawoman she had made friends with, and came face to face with…

Reino.

Kyoko panicked.

**No. NO. NONONONONONONONONO. Oh God No. What is wrong with world. NO. **

Kyoko slammed the door shut, locking all the locks that she could find on it. She grabbed a chair from the study desk that was positioned against the wall, and jammed it under the door knob. She had to be quick and efficient about this man, sealing off all possible exits. He was too dangerous to take lightly. Kyoko's demons swirled around her, making her look like she was standing in the middle of a sandstorm, only made up of little beings instead of sand. They went around, cheeping "Here, master, here!" at all the possible entrances. Kyoko ran helter-skelter, trying to listen to all of them at once. She flung open her bags, taking out a heavy woollen muffler she had packed just in case, and used it to tie the doors of the big French windows closed. She latched the rest of the windows as tight as she could. Next, she wetted one of the big complimentary towels in the room to make it heavy and stodgy and difficult to get past, and wedged it into the gap underneath the door. Next next next… what was she missing… THINK THINK THINK… windows: done; doors: done. What else could Reino do? Oh right… he had his own powers… so… WARDING

She scrabbled through her purse, taking out all the salt and pepper packets that often came with the bentos she had to eat when she filmed on set. It had seemed wasteful at the time to just throw them away, so she had saved them, but she had never imagined that they would come in use to her in the manner she was about to use them in. She ripped the packets open, sprinkling the salt along the perimeter of the room chanting warding, shielding and protection seals that she had learnt from Maria, and included the pepper, just for safety's sake… it couldn't do any harm, right? She was going to make Maria a whole new Ren doll for this, she made a mental note in her head.

She finally stood up and stopped chanting, looking at her handiwork. She realised that she needed to someone to go over what she had done… but who? She could hardly call Maria… how would she explain this? Part of Kyoko's brain balked at the idea of getting help… This was her problem, she could, and would, solve it on her own. But the other part of her brain remembered the last time she had tried to solve something with Reino. It had only got her paralysed, partially undressed, humiliated… and in Sho's debt. Not that it should be counted as debt, seeing as how she had spent most of her life serving him. But as much as she hated to admit it, if not for Sho, it didn't even bear to imagine what would happen next. But there was no way she was calling Sho over this either. Then it came to her: Tsuruga-san. She could ask him everything she wanted, and then bluff that she needed it for her role. As much as she hated lying to her senpai, it seemed like the best option. And maybe she would use this experience for her new role… who knew?

She called Tsuruga-san, mentally urging him to pick up as fast as possible. "Moshi moshi?"

"Ah, Tsuruga-san! Konbanwa! Or is it morning where you are? I stupidly assumed said evening since it's evening where I am and for some reason I keep thinking that all the places are at the same time as me even though logically I know that that's not possible-" Oh god she was babbling she was babbling someone needed to shut her up oh ugh

"Mogami-san, slow down, slow down, I need you to talk to me a bit more slowly." Tsuruga-san interrupted.

Kyoko closed her eyes and flopped backwards onto the bed. "Tsuruga-san, say that you had to protect your… living quarters from someone who was physically strong, mentally devious, and also had supernatural powers? And he was good at everything? How would you pro—" Kyoko broke off her sentence, her cellphone dropping from her hand. She had opened her eyes, only to see Reino sprawled onto the skylight… Oh lord… how could she have forgotten the skylit? But what could she do to secure the skylight? She whimpered, curling into a ball, her demon babies crowding around her in a protective ball. Then she stopped. She would never let Reino see her whimper or back down. She straightened out and glared at Reino. She would never back away from this scum. She would make him regret every step of his life.

"Mogami-san? Mogami-san? Kyoko-san? KYOKO-CHAN? KYOKO? ARE YOU THERE?" Ren was screaming into the phone.


	3. Chapter 3

Orange Blossom Dreams- chp3

"President, where is she?" Ren's voice was calm on the surface, but whole waves of controlled anger radiated from underneath, and anyone who knew Ren could easily spot it.

"Ahh, you mean Kyoko-san, don't you?" Unfortunately for Ren, he was talking to the President, one of the few people in the world who didn't crumble under his anger. Actually, uptil now he was the only one, but Ren was sure there were other people out there.

"You know very well who I mean, President." Ren's control was on the verge of breaking. The only reason he was able to keep himself in check was because he knew that his anger would get him nowhere, and maybe even fling him a few steps behind.

"Mogami-san is at The Resort." The President sighed. He was going to give Ren a break. Just this once though, he promised himself. He knew Ren had not seen Kyoko for over a month, and was already anxious. Ren always seemed to be anxious when Kyoko wasn't within a 500 metre radius of him. "But why are you so worried? She just went there to clear her head, since she accepted another dark role. It's nothing to worry about. Or is there something you're not telling me?" He asked sharply.

"To be completely honest, I'm not sure myself. I just have this bad feeling." Ren didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to talk about the phonecall unnecesarily either. He sighed.

"Listen, are you going to visit Kyoko-chan?"

"I- We- N- Yes." Ren stuttered. Ren was stuttering. And semi-speechless. What next? Dementia? "Ah, sorry President, I have to go." Ren excused himself before he did something more stupid or revealing next. "Yashiro-san, we've finished shooting over here, right?"

Yashiro consulted his phone. "Well, not exactly, but we if you work a bit overtime today we can wrap up here and leave by the end of the day. Why, did something happen? Do you need to be in Japan again?"

"I don't know if anything's happened, but I would like to go to The Resort as soon as possible."

"We can get there in about... 26 hours, counting the flights and airport time and travel time to the resort." Yashiro answered, consulting the PDA function on his cellphone."But why? What happened to Kyoko-chan? Why is she at The Resort? Did something happen? Did she injure herself? Has she fallen sick? Has she got a stalker?" Yashiro bombarded Ren with questions without pausing for breath.

"I don't know anything ye- How did you know I was talking about Mogami-san?" Yashiro was overjoyed. Ren was slipping up. "Either way, it doesn't matter," Ren mumbled, "I don't know anything and the President did say she had another dark ro- wait" Ren interrupted himself again. "What was the last thing you mentioned?"

"Who, me? Err... I think I said stalker." Ren's face darkened. "I don't think it can be a stalker, Tsuruga-kun, I was only joking!" Yashiro's protest came out as a little more than a squeak. Ren only uttered one word though. And is sounded suspiciously like 'beagle'.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thank you to everyone who is watching this story, or has added it to their favourites. An extra thanks to those who took the time to write a comment or a review. Thank you, really, all of you.

To those of you who wanted Kyoko to obliterate Reino… I don't see that happening, sawwy ^^;; Reino will definitely be put in his place though, so don't fret too much ^u^

To those of you who were wondering what Reino was doing in this story: Reino happens to be sorta important to this story line xP Yes, it's not his life's mission to harass Kyoko, as you will see. And there are many possible reasons for Kyoko and Reino to be at The Resort, as you will also see. I think many of you thought that chapter 3 was the end, which prompted comments like "please revise/inform Reino's presence" (paraphrase mine ^^~). Don't worry, explanations are forthcoming. In fact, there is so much explaining you will probably hate me by the end of this fic (I don't know when it will end though, so this chapter isn't it). Reino is *not* going to play the convenient villain in this fic, at least not for a bit. This fic of mine is not one of my fluffy brainfarts, although I'm not saying it won't have some fluff (never say never, expect the unexpected and all that jazz) so please bear with me. Thanks a lot, once again ^^~ Happy readings, and Happy winter break (and whatever celebration you may be celebrating ^^~)

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><p>"Well, what is it? Spit it out. Your "explanation"." Kyoko was nose to nose with Reino, although nose to chest would be more appropriate given their respective heights. Reino had sat on the skylight, breathing on the glass and writing the phrases "Will not hurt you~", "Let me explain pwease~~" and "It's really important .;;" on the condensation that appeared, repeatedly. After about fifteen minutes of this, God had deemed it suitable to rain, torrentially at that, but Reino had just sat through that for another half hour as well. It was the sitting in the rain that did it for Kyoko. It might really be important if Reino, the guy who hated pain and uncomfortableness, was perched on the skylight for half an hour in torrential rain. She told herself that as soon as she heard whatever he wanted to say, she would throw him out of the room.<p>

She had signaled to him to slide down to the balcony attached to the French doors. She would be damned if someone saw Reino entering her room, and she figured that no one would be out in the pouring rain. "How are you here anyway? This is LME property. It's not like anyone can just waltz in here." She tried to make herself as brusque as possible.

Reino smirked "We're actually here to record the OST for the new drama you're in. The one you're so jittery about." Kyoko's demons started stirring. How dare he approach her work place? How dare he try and work on the drama she was in? This… this… Creature… was so… ugh so detestable. She gave him her best glare, the one she had perfected in real life to give Sho every day. You know, when the gods were choosing the people she would know, they had given her plenty of jerks.

Reino ignored the glare. He looked at her as if he was examining a particularly fascinating piece of sculpture, repressing his shivers and pretending that he wasn't dripping bucketfuls of water on the floor. "The dreams are getting worse, aren't they?" He asked. His voice was low, even, comforting… Taken unawares for a moment, Kyoko answered.

"Y—y-yes, but how d-" abruptly stopping herself, she realized that he was simply using all the techniques he used for singing his rock ballads. "What the hell do you care?"

"I was… sent. Yes, 'sent' might be an appropriate word. I was sent to help you."

"Sent to help me? Please. By whom? I know of no one who would rather approach me through you than approach me themselves."

"Kyoko, I want to take twenty minutes of your time. Promise me that you will listen to me for twenty minutes. And then I will get the hell away from you and never approach you again, if that is what you wish. You are in danger and I simply want to inform you about it. Nothing less, nothing more." The plea in his voice was so earnest. Of course, he could simply be an actor of consummate skill, but there was a ring of sincerity to his request that was difficult to fake. And he had known about the dreams. Kyoko had been having those dreams for a couple of months now, and they had worsened as time went on. But she had always attributed it towards the roles she played, rationalizing with herself that there was going to be some rub-off from the characters that she had to portray. In fact, hadn't she read about famous actors who became so depressed due to their roles that they committed suicide? If the only side effect she was having was a couple of bad dreams, she should count herself lucky, right? And rationalizing thus, she had shoved the worries and the dreams to the back of her mind for her little demons to deal with. But what if these dreams proved to be more dangerous than they seemed?

Thinking everything over, she decided twenty minutes was fair enough, and nodded. "I promise."

"Praise all~!" Reino cried, and collapsed onto the sofa. "Can you please get me some towels? And some blankets? And some tea? Please?" Reino was mewling. Mewling. Seriously. This guy wasn't kidding when he said he hated pain of any kind. Kyoko knew that she would get anything out of him until he stopped shivering, and so gathered a couple of towels and blankets and dumped them unceremoniously onto Reino. Then she went and made a pot of tea while he dried off and arranged the blankets around him, dumping that teapot in front of Reino when he was done. He could pour it himself if he wanted it so much, Kyoko smirked to herself, as she watched Reino struggling in his blanket cocoon and reaching out for the teapot.

"So, what do you know about the mythosphere?" Reino asked abruptly

"Mythosphere?" Kyoko tried searching her memory for the word, but came up with nothing. Oh, but she did so hate saying she was ignorant about something, especially to Reino.

"Not surprising… hmm… how ought I begin…?" Reino spoke, but it was mostly to himself.

"You can begin by telling me how you knew about my dreams." Kyoko replied frostily.

"Your nightmares," Reino corrected, then sighed and said "Ok, I suppose that's as good a point to start from as any." He readjusted himself so that he was more or less looking directly at Kyoko. "Something… No, someone, has asked me to help you. You don't know them, but they have ways and means, and they fear that something bad is going to happen unless you help yourself. I'm just the messenger, in a way."

"Why are you helping me, then?" Kyoko was completely baffled. The Reino she knew was evil. Unless he wanted something from her, he would never do this. So what did he want from her?

"Ok, we'll go step by step, mythosphere first. You'll have to follow fast, ok? Have you ever seen those Buddhist statues that represent 7 levels of heaven and 7 levels of hell? Well, the world we live in has many layers as well. The bottom-most layer is the one we all live in. Higher levels, however, can be… walked in, by some people. Special people. People like you and me. And creatures from stories and legends and myths and folklore. The mythosphere consists of all of these things, and they are all connected in strands. Have you ever seen a blog? Have you ever seen how the entries are tagged? One entry can be tagged with many different words, and if you click on one of those words you can see all the entries that contain that specific thing, right? Similarly, a strand is made up of related myths. For example, the strand of Hunters will be made up of the legends from Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Orion, and so on. The lower levels of the mythosphere consist of legends, stories that are recent, or from urban legends. But they can also be from powerful or special people's dreams and nightmares and imaginations and subconscious. From people like you. Now there are several different types of people who can traverse the mythosphere. People from powerful magical families, who can do it asleep or awake. Or people whose magical abilities are not a birth-gift, who have had something happen to them in order to awaken these powers. These type of people can only traverse the mythosphere when they are unconscious. Both of us belong to the second category. You following me so far?" Reino stopped for a breath, and sipped his tea as he carefully watched Kyoko's reaction.

Kyoko's brain had currently gone slightly numb from the amount of information it had to process. It wasn't taxing, exactly… everything Reino said sounded… right. It was as if she had known everything all along, but someone had put a blanket over that information over her brain. Reino was just taking that blanket off, and shaking it to clear the dust that had settled. Kyoko nodded her head. "Yeah, I've got that. Go on please."

But when she looked at Reino, she realized that he had fallen asleep.

With his mouth open.

Snoring like a battle in full gear.

This was going to be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

Orange Blossom chp5

Reino sleeping was a strangely angelic sight, and she remembered what she had once overheard Miroku complaining about how Reino was so horridly fussy about sleeping only in his coffin. How tired must he be to fall asleep on an ordinary sofa?

But then her heart hardened. Reino had caused her some grief, and waking him up from his beauty sleep wasn't that big a revenge in return. Besides, he couldn't leave her at a cliffhanger the way he just had. What if he was just messing with her? Although there was sincerity enough in his voice that her doubt had subsided to a small niggling at the back of her mind, instead of trampling rampant across her brain.

She gently shook him awake. That was about as helpful as tickling a t-rex. She kicked him. Nothing. Well… if he wasn't waking up the normal way, she might as well bring in the big guns. She filled a bucket of cold water and placed it on the ground parallel to his feet on the sofa. She pulled off his boots, and then with an almighty heave, pushed his feet into the bucket.

The yell that emanated from Reino's body was heard by the residents of Betelgeuse.

"WOMAN! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Reino's face had turned an interesting shade of red and veins stood out in his face and neck as he roared expletive after expletive. Kyoko had never seen such creativity with curses before.

She simply went back to her seat and looked expectantly at him. Reino pretended to ignore her, sulking at her method of waking him up. Kyoko got up and opened the French doors, even though the force of the storm outside just about blew her away, she stood as firm as possible and jerked her head. "Out." Reino immediately looked chastened, and motioned her to come back and sit.

"This part gets harder to explain." Reino confessed, after Kyoko was perched back onto her seat. Kyoko raised an eyebrow, and Reino hurriedly went on "But I still need to say it, so hang on. Ren… and…" Kyoko sat up straighter. Reino stumbled over his words, not knowing how to go on "Ren and Corn… are the sa- are in danger. So is Sho, for that matter. No, don't say anything, let me finish everything I have to say first. Sho, Ren and Corn are in danger, and only you can save them."

"Only I can save them? How corny is that -_-;; Hang on, I'm talking about Reino, king of corn. Aside from Sho, anyway. King of corn *giggle*, I'm so funny~ Wait, he's still speaking…" Kyoko tuned back in again after accidently digressing into her train of thought.

"Remember how I told you that you can walk the mythosphere in your sleep? Well, walking a certain way can give you access to certain dreams of people you are sufficiently close to. Their problems lie more at a subconscious level than a conscious one, and maybe you reasoning out with them and supporting them in their dreams and in real life will help them work their issues out." Reino finished his explanation and sat back with a loud thump, all the air gone out of him, as if he were some sort of human bellows.

"But am I close enough to them to actually help them? To walk into their dreams? And how do I manage it? It's not as if I've done it before."

"If you're not close enough to them, then no one is. You'll manage it once you slip into the mythosphere. You'll have to find a guide- you do that by just wishing for it really hard- and then you just tell them where you want to go and follow them."

Kyoko had mixed feelings… on one hand, she desperately wanted to help all of them. But then she was scared she would mess up, and she didn't know how bad the consequences could be. Plus, she wasn't exactly sure she would be able to be benevolent enough to help Sho. Not after everything that happened between them.

As if he had read her mind, Reino immediately started coaxing her "Just come take a look with me. If you don't think you can handle it, I won't push you. It'll be entirely up to you." Maddeningly enough, everything that Reino was saying not only rang true, it was also entirely reasonable. By now she was completely disoriented. Exactly what had happened to her world in the last few hours? One minute she was riding a bus to a mini-vacation, and the next she was being coaxed into taking a trip into the Land of Nod with the guy she was sure she would loath her whole life from the bottom of her heart.


End file.
